Editing Stephen Sondheim (section)

=== Education ===
Sondheim began attending [[Williams College]], a [[Liberal arts colleges in the United States|liberal arts college]] in [[Williamstown, Massachusetts]], whose theater program attracted him.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://musopen.org/pt/education/instrument/323/piano/great-composers/20th-century-composers/stephen-sondheim/|title=Stephen Sondheim for Piano – Guides|website=musopen.org|language=pt|access-date=February 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210002843/https://musopen.org/pt/education/instrument/323/piano/great-composers/20th-century-composers/stephen-sondheim/|archive-date=February 10, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> His first teacher there was Robert Barrow:
<blockquote>everybody hated him because he was very dry, and I thought he was wonderful because he was very dry. And Barrow made me realize that all my romantic views of art were nonsense. I had always thought an angel came down and sat on your shoulder and whispered in your ear "dah-dah-dah-DUM." It never occurred to me that art was something worked out. And suddenly it was skies opening up. As soon as you find out what a [[leading tone]] is, you think, Oh my God. What a [[diatonic scale]] is—Oh my God! The logic of it. And, of course, what that meant to me was: Well, I can do that. Because you just don't know. You think it's a talent, you think you're born with this thing. What I've found out and what I believed is that everybody is talented. It's just that some people get it developed and some don't.<ref name=Schiff /></blockquote>

The composer told [[Meryle Secrest]]: "I just wanted to study composition, theory, and harmony without the attendant [[musicology]] that comes in graduate school. But I knew I wanted to write for the theater, so I wanted someone who did not disdain theater music."<ref name="An early influence">{{cite journal |year=2011 |title=An early influence |journal=[[The Sondheim Review]]|volume=XVII |issue=4 |page=6}}</ref> Barrow suggested that Sondheim study with [[Milton Babbitt]], whom Sondheim called "a frustrated show composer" with whom he formed "a perfect combination".{{r|An early influence}} When they met, Babbitt was working on a musical for [[Mary Martin]] based on the myth of [[Helen of Troy]]. The two met once a week in New York City for four hours. (At the time, Babbitt was teaching at [[Princeton University]].) According to Sondheim, they spent the first hour dissecting [[Rodgers and Hart]] or [[George Gershwin]] or studying Babbitt's favorites ([[Buddy DeSylva]], [[Lew Brown]], and [[Ray Henderson]]). They then proceeded to other forms of music (such as [[Mozart]]'s [[Jupiter Symphony]]), critiquing them the same way.<ref name=Bermel>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tBVLHv01WE|title=A Conversation with Stephen Sondheim|date=May 9, 2012|access-date=December 9, 2017|via=YouTube|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190409142524/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tBVLHv01WE|archive-date=April 9, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Fascinated by mathematics, Babbitt and Sondheim studied songs by a variety of composers (especially [[Jerome Kern]]). Sondheim told Secrest that Kern had the ability "to develop a single motif through tiny variations into a long and never boring line and his maximum development of the minimum of material". He said of Babbitt, "I am his maverick, his one student who went into the popular arts with all his serious artillery".{{r|An early influence}} At Williams, Sondheim wrote a musical adaption of ''[[Beggar on Horseback]]'' (a 1924 play by [[George S. Kaufman]] and [[Marc Connelly]], with Kaufman's permission) that had three performances.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Lipton|first=James|author-link=James Lipton|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1283/the-art-of-the-musical-stephen-sondheim|title=The Art of the Musical Stephen Sondheim|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101027183725/http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1283/the-art-of-the-musical-stephen-sondheim |archive-date=October 27, 2010|magazine=[[The Paris Review]]|year=1997 |volume=Spring 1997 |issue=142 |access-date=September 4, 2013}}</ref> A member of the [[Beta Theta Pi]] fraternity,<ref name="Citron2001">{{cite book |last1=Citron |first1=Stephen |title=Sondheim and Lloyd-Webber: The New Musical |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-509601-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a4XmCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA38 |page=238 |language=en}}</ref> he graduated ''[[Latin honors|magna cum laude]]'' in 1950.<ref>Citron 2001, p. 47</ref>

"A few painful years of struggle" followed, when Sondheim auditioned songs, lived in his father's dining room to save money, and spent time in Hollywood writing for the television series ''[[Topper (TV series)|Topper]]''.{{r|master}} He devoured 1940s and 1950s films, and called cinema his "basic language";{{r|rich}} his film knowledge got him through ''[[The $64,000 Question]]'' contestant tryouts. Sondheim disliked movie musicals, favoring classic dramas such as ''[[Citizen Kane]]'', ''[[The Grapes of Wrath (film)|The Grapes of Wrath]]'', and ''[[A Matter of Life and Death (film)|A Matter of Life and Death]]'': "Studio directors like [[Michael Curtiz]] and [[Raoul Walsh]] ... were heroes of mine. They went from movie to movie to movie, and every third movie was good and every fifth movie was great. There wasn't any cultural pressure to make art".<ref name=Mitchell>{{cite news |last=Mitchell |first=Elvis|author-link=Elvis Mitchell|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/28/movies/sondheim-film-aficionado-choices-for-telluride-festival-show-nonmusical-side.html|title=Sondheim, Film Aficionado; Choices for Telluride Festival Show Nonmusical Side|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=August 28, 2003 |access-date=December 18, 2024|archive-date=November 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127024337/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/28/movies/sondheim-film-aficionado-choices-for-telluride-festival-show-nonmusical-side.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

At age 22, Sondheim had finished the four shows Hammerstein requested. Screenwriters [[Julius J. Epstein|Julius]] and [[Philip G. Epstein|Philip Epstein]]'s ''Front Porch in Flatbush'', unproduced at the time, was being shopped around by designer and producer [[Lemuel Ayers]]. Ayers approached [[Frank Loesser]] and another composer; both turned him down. Ayers and Sondheim met as ushers at a wedding, and Ayers commissioned Sondheim for three songs for the show; Julius Epstein flew in from California and hired Sondheim, who worked with him in California for four or five months. After eight auditions for backers, half the money needed was raised. The show, retitled ''[[Saturday Night (musical)|Saturday Night]]'', was intended to open during the 1954–55 Broadway season, but Ayers died of [[leukemia]] in his early forties. The production rights transferred to his widow, Shirley, and due to her inexperience the show did not continue as planned;<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web|title=Stephen Sondheim Biography and Interview|website=achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url=https://achievement.org/achiever/stephen-sondheim/#interview|access-date=April 16, 2020|archive-date=December 19, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161219192108/https://achievement.org/achiever/stephen-sondheim/#interview|url-status=live}}</ref> it opened [[off-Broadway]] in 2000. Sondheim later said, "I don't have any emotional reaction to ''Saturday Night'' at all—except fondness. It's not bad stuff for a 23-year-old. There are some things that embarrass me so much in the lyrics—the missed accents, the obvious jokes. But I decided, leave it. It's my baby pictures. You don't touch up a baby picture—you're a baby!"{{r|rich}}